The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, a UK-based higher education ranking agency, has released its 2024 ranking of seven local universities, five of which are in the top 100. The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the highest-ranked university in Hong Kong, is ranked 26th, down 5 places from 2023, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is ranked 47th, down 9 places.
QS, an international higher education research institute, has announced its latest ranking of the world’s universities. This year, three new metrics, including sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network, were added to the previous metrics of academic reputation, employer reputation and number of citations to rank 1,499 institutions from 104 regions.
In the global rankings, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology remains at the top of the list, the University of Cambridge is still in second place, Oxford University and Harvard University both moved up one place to third and fourth respectively, while Stanford University dropped two places to fifth.
As for Hong Kong, five universities are in the top 100. Among them, HKU is the highest ranked in Hong Kong, at 26th, but down five places from last year; Chinese University of Hong Kong is 47th, down 9 places from last year; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is 60th, down 20 places from last year; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is unchanged at 65th; City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is 70th, down 16 places from last year. In addition, Hong Kong Baptish University, which did not make the top 100, is ranked 295th, down 14 places from last year.
On employment outcomes, HKU and CUHK are ranked 14th and 53rd in the world respectively, while the rest of the universities are not in the top 100; on international research network, all 7 universities are outside the top 300; the highest ranked HKU is at 355th.
The performance of Hong Kong institutions on employer reputation is also less impressive, with HKU ranking 159th.
A spokesperson for HKU said that the university’s international reputation will be further enhanced through the implementation of its vision to become a world-class university in Asia. A spokesperson for CUHK said that the rankings of major world universities use different metrics and are updated from time to time, and that the global higher education sector is still recovering from the epidemic, which affects a number of factors such as non-local student mobility and international faculty recruitment. A spokesman for HKUST said the rankings are affected by various factors and the university will use them as a reference to understand its performance and that of their peers to identify areas for improvement.
